Desert Palace leader

[Weimar Pluto Knight VII]

Hey does anybody know who you can control when you switch back to Desert Palace? Like, I was trying to control Garnet, but I haven't gotten it to work. I think Eiko trumps everyone else if you don't take her to Oeilvert, but I'm not sure beyond that. This last time playing, I used a party of Zidane, Eiko, Freya, and Steiner, then Vivi became the leader.

Who else can you play as, and what party members do you need to take to Oeilvert to make that person the leader in Desert Palace?

[Old Manus]

No idea. I got it as Dagger once, all the other times it was Eiko. Girl power etc.

[Weimar Pluto Knight VII]

Did you take Eiko with you to Oeilvert? Or, should I make a party of all men over to Oeilvert, so when you go back to the Desert Palace, you get in control of Garnet and 3 other girls? Well, 2 girls and a s/he?

EDIT: Ok, this time I had a party of Zidane, Steiner, Vivi, and Eiko, then they put Freya as the lead. How did you get Garnet? I'm not sure if it's possible. I hope someone responds, b/c I don't want to keep doing Oeilvert.

[boys from the dwarf]

there are many combinations depending on who you take with you but eiko seems to be the main so if you take eiko with you you can do all kind of different combinations.

[Weimar Pluto Knight VII]

Ok, on this playthrough, I went back to the savestate again where you choose your party, and now I'm picking a party of Zidane, Eiko, Vivi, and Freya. I think I'm gonna get Steiner, but let's see.

Is it basically Eiko>everyone else? And certain characters trump others? Or, is it random?

Anybody get Amarant? That would be interesting, as he is the only playable character that you never get to automatically control as the leader in the game.

Ok, these are the combinations I've come up with so far.

Zidane, Eiko, Freya, Steiner-->Vivi
Zidane, Eiko, Steiner, Vivi-->Freya
Zidane Eiko, Vivi, Freya--> I'm not there, yet. If I get Steiner while someone got Dagger...then, can someone explain to me the system? I can't find this anywhere on the net. Since I plan to get into video game design and stuff, this flow chart stuff is interesting.

EDIT: Zidane, Eiko, Vivi, Freya-->Steiner, who acknowledged Garnet, so that implies more variability in the script. Also, If you take Vivi to Oeilvert, there's a little dialogue between him and a black mage before beaming up.

EDIT: Hmm, since I put a savestate right where you select your party, I've noticed that Eiko is the first name out of his mouth no matter what characters you pick and in what order (assuming you picked her), followed by other possible leaders, then finally people who I wasn't able to get, like Garnet, who is always the last person he says. Could this have a connection to the system involved in picking the leader? If so, I don't see how you can possibly get Dagger, since even Amarant trumps her. I wonder what would happen if I found a way to hack my savestate. I know you can do that to Super NES savestates. I wonder what would happen if I hacked it on such a way that most of my available characters simply vanished.

[Karl]

i got amarant the first time i ever played it, my party was zidane steiner eiko vivi.... umm i guess its random but more likely tworad certain characters? not really sure but amarant is possible and he runs kinda weird... its like a limp

[Weimar Pluto Knight VII]

Hmm, ok, if your memory is serving you, then hmmm. Hmm, I wonder what would trigger a different leader if it's not based on who's in your party. Maybe it has to do with your fight with Ark? Maybe I should savestate right before they pick a leader.

I wonder if I should email Square.

[OwneD]

I didn't really care about reading about Oeilvert so I took Zidane, Eiko, Vivi and Eiko with me, I think I got Steiner as "main" character at Desert Palace then

[bobzilljoe900]

eiko times 2 u say? thats... umm... yeeeeeaaa......

[Weimar Pluto Knight VII]

I'm gonna guess he meant Dagger. That would make it tough, unless you fought a bunch of dragons just before, and you were on top of the chocobo quest (though it doesn't make any difference if you don't take Freya and Amarant), and you have thievery doing 9999 damage anyway.

Yes, according to my theory, If you take Eiko and Vivi but not Steiner, then you will get Steiner as the lead, but if you took the princess, I don't know if the dialogue changes a bit, or the dialogue of acknowledging the princess is skipped. I guess I could check everyone's lvl or something, but that can't be it; Vivi is at a low lvl in my current game (well, 50 compared to like 70).

Does anyone have a file right before you pick your party to go to Oeilvert? Is your list different from mine, if you got Amarant or Dagger? Zidane should say the characters in this order, I think, assuming you could take everyone: "Eiko, Vivi, Steiner, Freya, Quina, Amarant, and Dagger."